Stainless steel wire



26, c. R. HORWEDEL 2,365,959

STAINLESS STEEL WIRE Filed'Sept. 2s, 1941 57Zl/VLE55 STEEL WIRE TRANSPARENT WAX FILM DIE-WORKED INTO WIRE Sue/mes To REA/DER IT SUBSTANT/ALLH lNV/S/BLE.

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INVENTOR Cmms IP/CHHRO HORWEDEL,

Patented Dec. 26, 1944 STAHVLESS STEEL WIRE Charles Richard Horwedel, Lakewood, Ohio, assignor to The American Steel and Wire Company of New Jersey, a corporation of New Jersey Application September 26, 1941, Serial No.- 412,509 1 Claim. (Cl. 29180) This invention relates to stainless steel wire, the object being to provide this product in such a. form that it can be subjected to cold-forming operations with less of a tendency for its surface to be marred or scratched, and so that it can be more easily coiled and uncoiled.

The present application is a continuation, in part, of a copending application filed by the same inventor on May 21, 1940, and bearing Serial No. 336,441. This application has now issued as Patent No. 2,260,455.

Stainless steel wire is produced by drawing stainless steel through dies, this imparting a highly finished surface which, in practically all instances, it is desirable to maintain. Due to its analysis, the wire is inherently very hard so that it strongly resists cold deformation, this resulting in high die pressures during the produc tion of the wire, and necessitating the use of high pressures when this wire is ultimately coldformed into articles of commerce. For instance, stainless steel wire of relatively high carbon content, such as .14% carbon, is used to make brushes, springs, wire ropes, etc., the fabrication of which requires cold deformation of the wire beyond its elastic limit so as to set it in the form of the product desired, and this, in turn,

is done by automatic machinery using fixed guides, and the like, past which the wire is forced and which deflect the wire so as to set it in its desired form. In all such instances, a problem is encountered in that, due to high pressures between the moving wire and the fixed guide parts, there is a decided tendency for the wire to become marred or scratched, this being disadvantageous for various reasons, such as the lowering of fatigue life caused by a scratch in the case of a spring, the acceleration of corrosion resulting from such a defect in the case of all products, and the general detraction from the appearance in the case of those products which are required to have eye-appeal. r I In the copending application, the problems encountered in the drawing of such wire are disclosed as being solved by continuously drawing stainless steel wire through a series of dies of the required hardness, the wire being coated with a solid wax and drawn successively through the dies, thewax melting as the wire draws through each die and being then immediately bathed with a fluid coolant so as to resolidify the wax so that it issolid when the wire encounters a succeeding die. It is disclosed that the wax must have a melting temperature of not less than 40 0., and that it must, in each instance,

. be bathed by the coolant upon leaving each die,

including the. last die, so that the wire retains a .waxed coating. This was coating remains on the finished product and facilitates its further processing or manipulation.

The wax used may be beeswax, Chinese wax,

parafiin, bayberry wakwor carnauba wax, all

5 having a melting temperature exceeding 40C.

and facilitating its coiling and uncoiling. Al-

though substantially invisible, this wax film provides a lubricating effect preventing marring of the highly finished surface of the stainless steel wire when it is forced past fixed parts during its fabrication into cold-formed articles, such as springs, brushes, wire rope, etc.

In addition to the above advantages, stainless steel wire has the characteristics that when it is coiled or uncoiled the various convolutions tend to stick together due to their having such a high coeflicientof friction, and although the wire with its wax film looks just like the prior art stainless steel wire, it will be found to handle much easier in such instances. Furthermore,

there is much less chance of the surface of this product being marred during shipping, when it carries the wax film disclosed herein. It is to be understood that in all instances the wax film may be easily removed from the fabricated artieles should this prove desirable, although in most instances it is unnecessary. All of the waxes mentioned may be removed by various solvents, carbon tetrachloride having been found satisfactory.

40 'The wire disclosed herein is illustrated by the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 being a greatly enlarged cross-section of the wire showing the wax film, while Figure 2 shows in elevation a coil of the wire shown by Figure 1.

I claim:

Stainless steel wire in coil form with its surface carrying a compressed film consisting solely of wax of the class consisting of beeswax, Chinese wax, paraffin, bayberry wax and carnauba wax having melting temperatures exceeding 40 C., said film being die-worked into the surface of the wire under pressure so extremely high that the wire is reduced in size by the die-working, said film being substantially invisible while being detectable by the wire having a waxy feel giving it antifriction properties.

CHARLES RICHARD HORWEDEL. 

